Kanye West: Ye clashes with Piers Morgan in new interview, admits antisemitic comments caused ‘hurt’
George Floyd’s family is also considering a lawsuit against Kanye West after he spoke about how the 46-year-old man died over the weekend, according to their lawyer
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Your support makes all the difference.Kanye West has pologised for causing “hurt and confusion” with antisemitic comments he made last week.
Appearing on Piers Morgan Uncensored on Wednesday (19 October), the host asked the rapper whether he regretted threatening to go “DEFCON 3 on Jewish people”.
West initially doubled down on his comments, replying: “No, absolutely not.” Morgan then asked if he knew the comments were racist, to which West confirmed: “Yes, that’s why I said it... I fought fire with fire. I’m not here to get hosed down.”
Elsewhere, the mother of George Floyd’s daughter has sued Kanye West for $250m in the wake of his controversial comments about Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minnesota police officer.
And now Floyd’s family has issued a cease-and-desist letter to West for the comments he made on the Drink Champs podcast, which has now been taken down.
In the lawsuit filed by Roxie Washington, the mother of Gianna Floyd, lawyers said West made “false statements about George Floyd’s death to promote his brands, and increase marketing value and revenue for himself, his business partners, and associates.”
Earlier, The Drink Champs interview was pulled from YouTube, Rolling Stone reports.
The YouTube show’s host, N.O.R.E., apologised for the contents of the interview that he said “hurt” people during a Monday morning radio show appearance. Hours later, the video had been made private on YouTube while the podcast version of the conversation was removed from both Spotify and Apple Music earlier in the day.
Late in the night on Monday, Tesla billionaire and potential Twitter owner Elon Musk appeared to tease a possible business collaboration with West after he tweeted out a meme - and then deleted -that hinted at a team-up with the rapper and Parler, the right-wing social network he is in the process of acquiring.
Even Trump concerned by Kanye West acting ‘crazy’, report says
Donald Trump, who once posed for photos with Kanye West at Trump Tower after the rapper embraced the then-president-elect and invited him to the White House while in office, is privately rebuking the artist’s recent public tirades against Jewish people, according to Rolling Stone.
The former president has reportedly confided in multiple people close to him that the rapper’s social media blasts, in which he said he planned to go “death con 3” on “JEWISH PEOPLE,” have led him to believe that West is acting too “crazy” and he should seek out professional “help”.
Two sources familiar with the matter confirmed to Rolling Stone that the one-term president is intentionally avoiding commenting on the scandals that have erupted since the rapper began railing against the Jewish community.
Oliver O’Connell has the full report here.
Even Trump concerned by Kanye West acting ‘crazy’, report says
Former president confiding in friends that rapper needs ‘help’
ICYMI: Why has Kanye West turned on his old friend Jared Kushner?
Among the figures that Kanye West took issue during his wide-ranging two-part interview with Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, one that stood out was his previously self-described “good friend”: Jared Kushner.
Throughout the explosive primetime sitdown between the pair, West addressed a number of topics, including his pro-life stance, his decision to don a red MAGA cap, labelled the body positive moment “demonic” and admonished the fashion industry for encouraging his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, to “stick her a** out” for magazines.
In one of the more zany and unexpected exchanges, West sharply criticised Mr Kushner, a former senior White House adviser to his father-in-law, Donald Trump, insinuating that he was a person solely motivated by financial gain.
“I just think it was to make money,” he told Mr Carlson of Mr Kushner’s work facilitating the Abraham Accords, a deal that sought to normalise ties between Israel and Arab nations.
Though it seems relations between the two men have soured recently, the pair of Trump-loyalists were not always at odds with one another, as jovial meetings inside the White House have been documented going back as early as 2018.
Here, The Independent charts the chummy-turned-hostile relationship between Mr Kushner and Kanye and explain why the recent tensions have unfolded.
Why has Kanye West turned on his old friend Jared Kushner?
After Kanye accused Kushner of using his time as a White House adviser for financial gain, Johanna Chisholm charts how the pair’s relationship turned sour
Parler CEO calls Kanye West a ‘victim of cancellation’
The CEO of Parler has sought to defend Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, from antisemitisim complaints following news of his takeover bid of the right wing social media app.
Speaking with Fox Business on Monday, Parler CEO George Farmer said “censorship in any format is never a good thing” after Mr West was locked out of his Twitter and Instagram accounts over statements deemed antisemitic. He added that the rapper was also a “victim of cancellation”, per Mediaite.
“The tweet that he put out last week, as far as I could understand it, was an incorrect reference to defcon,” Mr Farmer told Maria Bartiromo of the rapper’s apparent reference to DEFCON, a level of US defence department readiness. “He’s obviously willing to have conversations that plenty of people want to have and I think that he’s trying to engage in the free speech environment”.
“Specific comments about his personal opinions, obviously I can’t comment because I’m not him, but I would like to say that he’s now in a place where he’s fallen victim to the cancellation narrative,” Mr Farmer continued. “Whether or not what he said offended some people, of course, is up for conversation,” he said.
Gino Spocchia has the full developing story below.
Parler CEO calls Kanye West a ‘victim of cancellation’
“I can’t comment because I’m not him,” said CEO George Farmer, following Ye’s takeover bid
George Floyd’s family says Kanye West ‘betrayed’ them
George Floyd’s family says Kanye West’s recent comments that the Minneapolis man wasn’t actually killed by police in 2020—even though the entire incident was captured on video and confirmed in court—has left them feeling “betrayed.”
The family is considering a legal case against the musician and fashion designer, now known as Ye, after he claimed on a recent podcast appearance that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s knee “wasn’t even on his neck like that.”
Bystander video showed Chauvin pressing his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly ten minutes, as the man audibly insisted he couldn’t breathe then lost consciousness.
The Floyd family may also sue Candace Owens, a right-wing media personality and associate of Ye’s, who produced a “documentary” about Floyd’s death called The Greatest Lie Ever Sold.
“I anticipate by the end of the week, we’ll at least have an idea of what claims are viable and what parties might be involved,” attorney Lee Merritt told Rolling Stone. “At that time, the decision will be made whether or not to [pursue] trial litigation.”
George Floyd’s family may sue Kanye West over false claims about his death: ‘Absolutely betrayed by his comments’
George Floyd’s family may sue Kanye West over the rapper’s false claims about his death at the hands of a Minnesota police officer and says they feel “absolutely betrayed” by his remarks.
The rapper sparked new controversy by claiming that Floyd died from the drug fentanyl and that a police officer’s knee “wasn’t even on his neck like that”.
Following the comments, civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, who represented Floyd’s family, took to Twitter to suggest that the family may now take legal action against West.
“While one cannot defame the dead, the family of George Floyd is considering suit for Kanye’s false statements about the manner of his death,” he tweeted on Sunday.
“Claiming Floyd died from fentanyl not the brutality established criminally and civilly undermines & diminishes the Floyd family’s fight.”
Graeme Massie has the full story on the aftermath of Ye’s shocking comments.
George Floyd’s family may sue Kanye West over false claims about his death:
The rapper claimed on a podcast over the weekend that Floyd died from the drug fentanyl during his 2020 arrest
Video: Kanye West once marched for George Floyd
Kanye West’s recent comments disparaging George Floyd and denying he was really killed by Minneapolis police officers are all the more suprising because the musician and fashion designer once rallied around Floyd’s cause.
In 2020, he appeared in Chicago at one of the numerous Black Lives Matter rallies that occured after police killed Floyd in May.
Flashback: Ye once donated to tuition fund for George Floyd’s daughter
Kanye West wasn’t always at odds with George Floyd’s family.
In 2020, the rapper and fashion designer donated $2m to a group of Black families affected by racist violence, including the Floyds.
A representative told media outlets at the time that the money would go towards college tuition for Floyd’s daughter Gianna, as well as to cover the legal fees of the families of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, both of whose deaths helped inspire the 2020 racial justice protests.
N.O.R.E. apologises for airing episode of podcast with Kanye West’s anti-Semitic rants and attacks on George Floyd
Hip-hop artist N.O.R.E., one of the hosts of the Drink Champs podcast, apologised on Monday for airing a recent episode of the show where Kanye West made anti-Semitic remarks and false claims about the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
“I apologise to the George Floyd family,” the host told the Breakfast Club radio show today. “I apologise to anybody that was hurt by Kanye West’s comments.”
“I don’t support none of it,” he added. “I don’t support the George Floyd comments, I don’t support the antisemitic [comments]. That’s all I have is Jewish friends, all I have is Black friends. That’s it.”
The host said he supports freedom of speech, but not when it means “anybody being hurt.”
Watch his full comments below.
Kanye West has been on a right-wing tear lately
Rapper and fashion designer Kanye West’s recent anti-Semitic remarks and attacks on George Floyd are seemingly part of a larger rightward shift in the mutli-hyphenate’s politics.
In recent days, the artist has marched with a “White Lives Matter” shirt in a Paris fashion show and interviewed with Tucker Carlson on Fox News, where Ye allegedly made anti-Semetic remarks.
Kanye’s White Lives Matter shirts aren’t surprising. He knows where the money is
It’s important to note that there’s a lucrative market for Black people selling out for right-wing clout and money. Now, West could be looking to cash in on the right-wing conservative grift factory
Kanye West made anti-Semitic comments that were edited out of Carlson interview
Ye is currently banned from Twitter and Instagram for comments about Jews
Though this isn’t exactly new to Ye. He made waves during the Trump administration by donning the former president’s signature Make America Great Again hat and visiting the Trump White House.
6 most bizarre moments from Donald Trump and Kanye West’s White House press conference
'That was quite something' the president says after a near 10-minute monologue from Kanye West
Elon Musk appears to endorse Kanye West’s recent actions
Tesla founder Elon Musk appears to be endorsing Kanye West’s wild recent behaviour.
The billionaire tweeted a photo on Monday, showing himself and Ye as two characters from Dragon Ball anime series, who touch fingers to combine.
In the image, the rapper is shown with the logo of Parler, the right-wing social network he just purchased, while Mr Musk has the Twitter logo, suggesting a potential collaboration.
“Fun times ahead!!” Mr Musk said in a comment below the image.
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